Who do you work for when you work for yourself?
This came up in a LinkedIn question as another user asked about company matching. LinkedIn will try to help you reconnect with people who have also worked for the same company.
It’s helpful when the company has a few hundred employees – you might have known Mary Smith. It’s often not so helpful for large conglomerates with more than ten thousand employees, and really improbably for companies with over a hundred thousand…
But what happens when you put “Self Employed” in that box…
Everyone else who’s self employed
And that is exactly the answer – surely you must know some of these other people employed by this company called “Self Employed”, don’t you?-)
But that’s not very helpful…
Who do you work for?
My response is to forget about that issue – it would be much better to say that you work for an organization other than “Self Employed”.
If you’re running a business, use the business name – your DBA.
If you’re not running a business, use your own name!
The words “Self Employed” can still go on your tax return, but that doesn’t mean you can’t establish a name for yourself.
It’s your soapbox – use it
I talked about creating your platform in an earlier article, what you call yourself and who you work for are part of that process.
Which is a stronger message, saying that you worked for “John Smith, Engineering” or “Self Employed”?
It’s your profile, make sure it conveys your message.
To your continued success,
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock